In recent decades, when a president stops in the Bay Area it’s usually brief and boring, and it almost always revolves around fundraising. Eighty years ago, a president’s visit was a huge news story.

While several presidents had visited San Francisco before Roosevelt — and one, Warren G. Harding, died within city limits — these appear to be the oldest staff photos in our archive of a visit by the nation’s chief executive.

Roosevelt left Washington, D.C., on July 7, 1938, on a transcontinental tour to support his New Deal program and to campaign for liberal candidates in that year’s Democratic primaries. The entourage traveled across the country in a special 10-car train and arrived in Crockett shortly after 9 a.m. July 14. The popular president was greeted by 20,000 well-wishers and presented with a 10-inch sugar cube from a representative of the C&H Sugar Co. refinery, which is still in operation today beneath the Carquinez Bridge.

FDR discovery: 80-year-old, long-buried photos of...

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is seen in the lead car with Gov. Frank Merriam, surrounded by Secret Service members.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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Adm. David Worth Bagley talks to President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Mare Island on July 14, 1938.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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A full-page map in the July 14, 1938, Chronicle shows the president’s itinerary.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt would be greeted by the fog as he arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge, July 14, 1938.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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Two Secret Service members keep a watchful eye on the crowds on July 14, 1938.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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Thousands send off President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he departs on a train.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt is greeted by a crowd of 20,000 in the East Bay town of Crockett on July 14, 1938.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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The July 15, 1938, Chronicle reports on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reviewing of the U.S. fleet on his trip to the Bay Area.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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The fountains would be turned on as President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the site of the upcoming Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island, July 14, 1938.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrives in the Bay Area on July 14, 1938 for a tour of San Francisco, Sonoma and Marin counties. He would also drive across both the Golden Gate and Bay bridges.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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More than half a million people line the streets as the president’s motorcade makes its way through San Francisco on July 14, 1938.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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The July 14, 1938 Chronicle welcomes President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Bay Area.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt toured the Bay Area in a seven-seat 1927 Packard.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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An employee of C&H Sugar presents the president with a 10-inch-square sugar cube.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s train arrives in Crockett on July 14, 1938.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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The July 15, 1938, Chronicle reports on the welcome President Franklin D. Roosevelt receives as he arrives in the Bay Area on July 14, 1938.

Photo: The Chronicle 1938

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The president’s motorcade travels on Yerba Buena and Treasure Island as the Franklin D. Roosevelt visits the site of the Golden Gate International Exposition.

Photo: Associated Press 1938

On the automobile portion of the tour, Roosevelt rode in the lead car, a seven-passenger 1927 Packard. The motorcade wound through rural Solano County, west to Mare Island, and then through downtown San Rafael, with a brief stop at Dominican College before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

Military representatives greeted the president as the motorcade stopped partway across the span. Hats were removed and all but the president stood as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played. Roosevelt also met Army troops at the Presidio.

No one who has been to the Golden Gate Bridge in the summer should be surprised by The Chronicle’s July 15, 1938, Page 2 headline: “Gate Bridge fog greets president’s S.F. entry.”

A half-million spectators lined the streets of San Francisco as Roosevelt and his motorcade paraded from the Golden Gate to the Civic Center before heading toward the Bay Bridge. Their only lengthy stop was a luncheon and speech at the Exposition Administration Building on Treasure Island, where the president spoke of the increasing tensions around the world.

FDR, perhaps foreseeing the coming war, railed against the spike in weapons spending in Europe and across the globe: “We fervently hope for the day when the other leading nations of the world will realize that their present course must inevitably lead to disaster.”

The July 15, 1938, Chronicle runs a four-page photo spread as President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrives in the Bay Area. This photo was run across two pages.

Bill Van Niekerken is the Library Director of the San Francisco Chronicle. He does research for reporters and editors and manages the photos, negatives and text archives. He has a weekly column “From the Archive”, that focuses on photo coverage of historic events. For this column Bill scans and publishes 20-30 images from photos and negatives that haven’t been seen in many years.

Bill started working at the Mercury News in 1980, when nothing in news libraries was digital. Research was done using paper clippings, and cameras shot film. He moved to the Chronicle in 1985, just as the library was beginning their digital text archive.